Voigtländer has announced a Nikon Z-mount edition of its fast, wide-angle Nokton 28mm f/1.5 Aspherical prime, which has a 74.6° field of view. It comes hot on the heels of the Sony version announced at the tail end of 2024.
The full-frame lens covers a full-size image circle, and the optical design has been reengineered and optimized for the image sensors of Nikon Z-system cameras. While it's a manual-focus lens, it is equipped with electronic contacts, enabling electrical communication between the lens and the body, supporting the transfer of Exif information and enabling in-body image stabilization.
The lens is constructed from 10 elements in 8 groups, and the use of aspherical elements is said to provide excellent image resolving power, even when shooting wide open. The maximum aperture is a generous f/1.5 and the minimum setting is f/16. The minimum shooting distance is just 0.28m, enabling photographers to get up close to subjects, and this combination of wide aperture and short minimum shooting distance allows for beautiful 'blurred background' photography. In addition to this, the 12-blade aperture diaphragm is almost perfectly circular, allowing for a smooth bokeh effect in out-of-focus areas of highlights. It should qualify as one of the best lenses for bokeh.
It's an exclusively manual focus lens, and the all-metal focus ring has a classic knurled pattern that is easy to grip, while the silky operation of the greased high-precision metal helicoid mechanism enables precise focusing even at wide apertures.
A mechanical ring on the lens controls the aperture, rather than being set by the host camera's command dial, and this would particularly suit the retro styling of the Nikon Zf.
This lens weighs in at 360g and its overall size remains a relatively compact 67.6 x 57mm, with a 52mm filter thread. It comes with a dedicated metal screw-on lens hood.
The Nikon Z-mount edition of the Voigtländer Nokton 28mm f/1.5 Aspherical is scheduled for release in February 2025, and will cost ¥143,000 in Japan, which works out at around $910 / £745 / AU$1,470 with a direct currency conversion, but expect some variance with localized pricing.
